The present invention relates to a device for attachment of a surface shaped wall element between two upright, supporting poles, wherein the wall element is arrangeable in an unstable readiness position, from where it is brought to a locked position.
In different contexts, for example within the vehicle industry there is a need to provided shielding, for example around machines. Shielding around machines, so-called machine safeguards, aim to prevent that persons by mistake get into a machine work area and thereby run the risk of getting injured, or to prevent unauthorized persons to control the machine. A machine safeguard may also be used to catch details which are machined, but which are dropped by the machine or the robot which works on the inside of the machine safeguard.
There are a lot of legal requirements which applies to such shielding and machine safeguards. One example of this is that it shall not be possible to open the machine safeguard from the outside without a key or any particular tool. It shall neither be possible to arrange parts of the machine safeguard in a mounted position without them being locked in the above described way. Thus the machine safeguard shall not be designed in such a way that it by mistake or intentionally is unlocked without this being obvious.
An example of a machine safeguard of this type is shown in SE 524 266, wherein a series of grating sections are mounted between upright standing poles of steel. At the lower end area of respective section there is protrusions which are receivable in recesses in the nearby poles. Since the protrusions are placed far below the center of gravity of the wall section, it is impossible for the wall section to take a stable equilibrium position, and it may therefore not be unlocked without being obvious. In the locked position of the section a lock device, which is arranged at the upper parts of the outer edges of the wall section, has been brought into the corresponding recesses in the poles and thereby been snapped into position, from which the lock device may not be unlocked without usage of a special tool.
The German company “RK Rose+Krieger” markets another solution according to similar principles, but wherein pins are provided in an upper respective a lower position on poles, whereas receiving means and lock means are provided at the edges of the wall elements, such that the wall elements may not be left in a mounted but unlocked, position and special tools are demanded to release the wall elements from their locked positions. The pins in this solution are provided in undercut slots on profiles of aluminium.
Both the above described solutions are like other solutions per se working as machine safeguards, but they are rather expensive, in the first case especially regarding the machining and in the second case regarding the material. At comparison of the two examples it is possible to observe that the latter solution gives a slightly higher flexibility this since the positions of protrusions is vertically adjustable along the undercut slot in the pole. Except that the material, i.e. aluminium, is more expensive, it must also be regarded as a certain drawback that the production of aluminium in itself is very energy consuming, and thereby involves an environmental impact.
It is thus desirable to achieve a flexible solution for shielding and machine safeguards and to a lower cost than what has been possible until now.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a device is provided for attachment of a all element beta un two upright, supporting poles, wherein the wall element is arrangeable in an unstable readiness position, from where it is brought into an locked position, the device comprising at least one encircling mounting is provided on each pole for support of the wall element.